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From global to local negotiations: What climate summit in Paris means to Poland and Polish cities?

What Poland can contribute to the climate negotiations at the Paris Summit? Do arrangements of climate policy have a real impact on our lives? Can Polish cities effectively adapt to an ambitious climate policy, and how? These and other questions about the significance of the Paris arrangements were discussed by the representatives of Government and non-governmental organizations, as well as by international experts, during a conference ‘From global to local negotiations: What climate summit in Paris means to Poland and Polish cities?’ organised by Warsaw Institute for Economic Studies and Fortum Power and Heat Polska.

The first panel of the Conference was devoted to global climate policy, Poland’s place during climate negotiations and expectations of the arrangements of the Paris Summit. Marcin Korolec (Minister and Deputy Minister for Environment, responsible for climate negotiations over the period 2013-2015) drew attention to what should be included in the signed agreement: A long-term objective of the international community is a climate neutrality, i.e. reducing emission and increasing carbon sequestration capacity, so as human activities do not affect global warming. He also expressed a belief that this time an agreement will be achieved that will cover almost all countries, although the EU will still play the first fiddle. Esa Hyvärinen (the Vice President of the Corporate Relations sector in Fortum) stated that creating stable and predictable rules is crucial in climate policy from the companies’ perspective: The best are rules expressed in prices, as prices are the most clear and unambiguous signals from the entrepreneurs point of view. A price of carbon dioxide emission could be such a signal‘, he concluded. Marcin Krakowiak (Domański Zakrzewski Palinka SP. k.) added that a real challenge will be monitoring of application of rules, not their legal structure in itself. Christoph Wolff (Executive Director, European Climate Foundation) shared the optimism of Marcin Korolec with regard to a possible agreement, and pointed out that the attitudes of many countries, such as the US an China, have changed. In his opinion, the fact that the price of energy from renewable sources has fallen significantly was not without significance. Maciej Bukowski (WISE) noted that the public has little awareness of climate’s influence on human civilization. He was also very hopeful for a possibility of an agreement, even if it would not be reached this year. ‘The climate changes around us are more and more visible, what translates to an increasingly proactive stance of public opinion on this issue. Politicians will finally start acting, although they had better do it as soon as possible, as each delay will require painful adapting‘, he warned.

The second panel of the Conference was dedicated to a low-emission development of Polish cities and combating emission locally. Beata Maciejewska (the Proxy of the Mayor of the Słupsk city) stated that ‘Changes towards low-carbon solutions are not always a part of local politics. Wojciech Kaczkowski (Deputy Director of The Department of Infrastructure and Economy of Wrocław) pointed out that monitoring is essential in order to know of our achievements in a battle for climate. Debate participants agreed that the money deficit and unaware consumers are the main factors that hinder implementing eco-friendly solutions in smaller cities.

Warsaw Institute for Economic Studies along with Fortum Power and Heat Polska organized a conference ‘From global to local negotiations: What climate summit in Paris means to Poland and Polish cities?’ that took place on November 30 in Marriott Hotel in Warsaw.

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